Sunday, 28 May 2017

Atyantakaama Pallava’s Poem – a musical experiment

On
the southern portion of the west facing wall in the Ganesha Ratha and on the
northern wall ofthe Dharamaraja
Mandapam, one can find the same eleven stanza Sanskrit inscription, written in
Pallava Grantha script. Word for word, they are the same text, identifying both
as temples built by a Pallava King who called himself Atyantakaama (He of
Endless Desires), and in both the temple is called Atyantakaama Pallava Ishvara
Graham , that is, the house of Ishvara of Atyantakaama Pallava. Both are
temples for Siva, as the text of the poems describe.

The
poem is in anushtubh chandas, where each stanza has four parts, each of which
has eight syllables. Some of the stanzas use a poetic style called virodha
aabhaasa, which is a known style in Sanskrit of describing the same object
using phrases that mean opposite things. Here the object is Siva, the God for
whom Atyantakaama built these temples. The identity of this king Atyantakaama
Pallava is the subject of scholarly debate, with opinion varying that it is
Mahendra Pallava, his son Narasimha Pallava (alias Mahamalla), the latter’s
grandson Parameshvara Pallava, or his son RajaSimha Pallava. The correct
identity is irrelevant to the primary purpose of this essay, and the musical
video accompanying it, which is to showcase the beauty of the poetry and its
musical value.

Here
is the video, with Sudarsanam’s rendering of the song.

Here
is the verse in Sanskrit, in the modern Devanagari script, for those can read
it and need no translation:

संभवस्तिथिसंहारकारणं
वीतकारणः

भूयात् अत्यन्तकामाय
जगदां काममर्द्धनः

अमायः चित्रमायः
असौ अगुनः गुणभाजनः

स्वस्थः निरुत्तरः
जीयात् अनीशः परमेश्वरः

यस्य अङ्गुष्ट
भराक्रान्त कैलास स दशानन

पातालं अगमन्
मूर्धना श्रीनिधिस्तं विभर्ति अजं

Let
us examine the first stanza. It reads:

sambhava stithi
samhaara kaaraNam veeta kaaranaH

bhUyaat atyantakaamaya jagatAm kAma mardanaH

My
translation:

Let He who is the cause of Creation,
Preservation and Destruction, but himself without Cause,

And is also the destroyer of Kaama
(the God of Love)

Grant to He of Endless Desires, the
World.

You
can see the mischievous play on words by the poet here, quite typical of the
poetic inscriptions of Mahendra Varma Pallava, in his various cave temples at
Mandagapattu, Dalavanur, Siyamangalam, Mahendravadi and Tiruchi. Atyantakaama
(whether Mahendra himself, or one of his descendants), uses various epithets of
Siva as birudas (titles) for himself, so the phrases may mean either Siva or
the king, based on the context. Asking the Destroyer of Kaama to grant the
whole world to one who calls himself the Pallava of Endless Desires, is the
height of impudence. But it is also quite common in Hindu devotional Bhakti
literature, especially in the Tamil country, where the devotee expects God to
fulfill his or her desire.

Word meanings

sambhava
- Creation

stithi
- Preservation

samhaara
- Destruction

kaaraNam,
kaaranaH - Cause

veeta
- without

bhUyaat - grant

atyantakaamaya
– to Atyantakaama

jagatAm
– the world

kAma
– Desire (also the name of the God of Love)

mardanaH
- Killer

Let
us examine the second stanza. It reads:

amAyaH citramAyaH asau aguNaH guNabhAjanaH

svastaH niruttaraH
jeeyaat anIshaH paramEshvaraH

My
translation:

Let Him win,

who
is Non-Illusion but also himself the Great Illusionist,

who is without qualities but
Endowment of all qualities,

who
is Self-Existent but without superior,

who
has no Lord, but is the Supreme Lord

Virodha
abhaasa in full flow. Lockwood believes the reference to Parameshvara here
implies that the inscription was authored by the Pallava of the same name.
Otherwise it is one of two stanzas (along with the sixth) where the king uses
phrases only to describe Siva.

Word meanings

amAyaH - Non-illusion (i.e, the Absolute Truth)

citramAyaH
– the Great Illusionist

asau
- him

aguNaH
– He without quality (i.e One imossible to qualify)

guNabhAjanaH
– The Endowment of all qualities

svasthaH
– Self Existent

niruttara
- without Superior

jeeyaat
– Let win

anIsha - the Unmastered

paramEshvara
– Ultimate Master

Let
us examine the third stanza. It reads:

yasya angushta
bharA krAnta kailAsa sa dashAnana

pAtAlam agaman
mUrdhnA srinidhiH tam bibharti ajam

My
translation:

He
whose toe’s weight pressed Kailasa so hard that Ravana was pushed into the
Netherworld,

Perhaps
the Pallava bore a small lingam in his hair (or his crown). Here he gently
mocks Ravana, who tried to lift Kailasa, but was pushed to the netherworld by
an annoyed Siva for that audacity. So the Pallava comes across as more favored
than the legendary Ravana. In the video, I’ve used a sculpture from the Kanchi
Kailasanatha temple for this phrase, that I fancy might be of Siva resting his
foot on Rajasimha.

Is this Siva's foot on Rajasimha Pallava?

Word meanings

yasya
– whose

angushta
– toe

bharA
krAnta – weight

kailAsa
– the Mountain Kailasa

sa
- him

dashAnana
–TenFaced (i.e. RavanaH)

pAtAlam
- Netherworld

agaman
- sent

mUrdhnA
- head

srinidhi
– the bearer of Prosperity (a title of the Pallava King)

tam
- him

bibharti
- bears

ajam
– the Unborn (i.e Siva)

The
beauty of these poems captivated me, and I wondered why they could not be
rendered as song. My friend Sudharsanam immediately stepped up, set some of
these stanzas to music (Sahana raga) and recorded them. I had the pleasure
of playing this at a seminar in
Coimbatore, organized by the Rotary Club, where I was invited to speak on the
Rock-Cut temples of the Pallavas. And what better visuals than the
Atyantakaama’s sculptures at Mamallapuram to visually enhance the delight of
the song?

I am
surprised that such beautiful poems, in inscriptions, are not more popular
among the literati. Not a single inscription is ever discussed in a class text
book, which is a shame, considering the wonderful history and literature they
represent. What a pity that only the literature of poets is taught in Indian
schools and colleges, and not the poetry of kings, scientists, mathematicians,
sculptors, etc.

These
labeled collages shows all the sculptures used in the video.

Collage 1: Pictures from Dharamaraja Ratha

The
pashupati image is from Arjuna’s Penance, the panel Rshbhaantika from Arjuna
Ratha. The other sculptures are all from the middle floor of the Dharamaraja
Ratha, except that of AtyantaKaama Pallava, which is on the ground floor western
corner of the southern wall. While there are two Samhara Murthy sculptures,
oddly there is none of KamaMardhana in Mamallapuram, even though the poem refers
to this aspect of Siva in the first stanza.

Collage 2: Pictures from Shore temple and Olakkanesvara temple

In
this other collage, the sculptures in the upper row are from the Shore temple,
except the Gangadhara which is from the AdiVaraha Mandapam, a temple in worship.
The sculptures in the lower row are from the Olakkaneshvara temple, on top of
the main hill.

Dear sir, I have no words !Iam stunned by your scholarship in this ancient art,sculpture,inscriptions and epigraphy and history.We are fortunate to have person like you among us.The song was beautiful.Dr.Chidambaran.

I am delighted that you enjoyed it Dr Chidambaram. And flattered - but I merely read the works of scholars like Babington, Hultzsch, Dubreuil, Ramachnandra, Nagaswamy, KR Srinivasan, Lockwood, Baluswamy etc